Don Cherry knows the historical record. He knows that he blasted the Jean Chrétien Liberals for not supporting the United States invasion of Iraq, caned Montreal Canadiens fans for booing the American national anthem and, when coffins carrying Canadian troops began trickling home from Afghanistan, turned the final 30 seconds of Coach’s Corner into a national war memorial.

Don Cherry knows exactly what he has done and exactly what he is: a right-winger, a patriot, an angry old white guy working for a liberal employer in a nation long painted Liberal red until a pro-monarchy, pro-military, tough-on-crime prime minister came along and began repainting it blue.

The old hockey coach never changes, but maybe Canada has. And maybe Mr. Cherry was ahead of the curve, politically, and maybe the rest of the country — beyond the “pinko” bastion of downtown Toronto and those socialists down in Quebec — is finally catching up.

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“I am a right winger to the extreme,” he says, matter of fact. “But I really believe that how this country feels about service, about its importance — and about crime — people are sick of crime and they are proud of their military, not to the extent they should be, but they are more proud of their troops than ever.

‘I remember when I first started on Coach’s Corner we weren’t even allowed to say Merry Christmas on air’

“I remember when I first started on Coach’s Corner we weren’t even allowed to say Merry Christmas on air — we were told to say Season’s Greetings, and that has changed.

“And the military, it was pretty well on the ropes for a long time with our government but now, when you see a trooper in the airport you see people go up and shake their hand.

“Things have changed and I would say for the better.”

Mr. Cherry turned 78 recently and celebrated with a quiet night at home. Just a cake, and a couple gifts: a book about his hero, Sir Francis Drake, and another about the great admirals of the British navy.

Reading is one hobby. Hockey is his other. And that is it. He does not garden, paint, go antiquing, golf, play bridge, take fancy vacations, shop or tinker around with cars.

He doesn’t have time.

On a busy day this week we met at CBC headquarters in a cluttered back room attached to the Coach’s Corner set. The network is airing a new movie about his life — The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story Part II — beginning Sunday.

Mr. Cherry wore a pinstriped suit with a “Support our Troops” pin on the lapel. His blue-grey tie matched his pale blue eyes. A poster of Bobby Orr loomed over his right shoulder, while Maurice Richard peered over his left.

We talked about politics, and about the downside of aging, a subject that struck him as, well, strange, since he can’t really see a downside because he can’t seem to see himself as any older than 32.

“I don’t know why it is 32,” Mr. Cherry says.

In four years, he will be 82.

“You keep busy,” he says, “and you don’t grow old.”

His act on Coach’s Corner — and you meet Mr. Cherry and you recognize that it isn’t an act — is pushing 30. He says he would do the job for free. He gets a “charge” from it, and it is the closest he can get to feeling the same feeling he did as a player all those years ago, feeling like he did when he was young.

And who wants to give that up?

A successor? Please. Retirement? Never.

When Don Cherry goes out he is “going out on his shield,” mouthing opinions on fighting, on “gutless pukes” and chicken Swedes and French guys in visors and European guys whose names are impossible to pronounce and on the importance of supporting our troops, knowing our history and bowing to the Queen.

And when it does end, because it will at some point, and the cameras pull back and a generation grows up wondering who the hell this Don Cherry guy was, he hopes we remember that he wasn’t a phony.

“I am just a good old boy that paid his round,” Mr. Cherry says. “When you are in the minors, a guy that didn’t pay his round was ostracized, even if you were the best hockey player in the world the other guys wouldn’t talk to you if you didn’t pay your round.

“And I paid my round. People forget awful fast when you are a hockey player. I have been around some of the best here in Toronto, and they are out 10 years and people don’t know them anymore.

“If I do live for a long time after I get off Coach’s Corner I am sure some kids will come up to me and say, “Didn’t you used to be Don Cherry?”

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